Destructive. Deep and lasting. Painful. On Tuesday, the governor’s budget director outlined a catastrophic scenario where many of the critical services provided by state government would be further contracted.

These cutbacks are necessary because of the devastating collision between the current recession and the peculiar budget system contained in our state Constitution.

No area of state service will go untouched. From multi-million dollar cuts to K-12 and higher education to slashing of corrections, education and health care budgets, the state government is posed to simply abandon areas it has historically funded.

Coloradans have long demanded more K-12 per pupil funding: under the current system, that cannot happen.

We want hardened criminals off the streets: now, more are likely to be released early and fewer will be sent there in the first place.

Caring for seniors and the indigent is considered a social obligation: in the upcoming fiscal year, funds for these services will be strangled.

Experience has made clear that the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR), Amendment 23 school funding requirements and the Arveschoug-Bird budget allocation formula create an impossible scenario where lawmakers’ hands are tied in the face of both increasing and decreasing state revenue.

A few years ago, Coloradans decided through Referendum C’s temporary provisions to release the state from these constraints. But it is necessary to go further than Referendum C. The General Assembly must be allowed to generate and allocate resources as it sees fit – in the best interests of the state – without the barriers that make this impossible today.

One – and perhaps the only – way to successfully free Colorado to grow for the future is to rewrite the state Constitution.

Article XIX of the Colorado Constitution, ratified on August 1, 1876, provides a mechanism for the General Assembly to call a Constitutional Convention. Two-thirds of the state House and state Senate must recommend to the voters of the state that a Convention be held.

Then a majority of voters at the next General Election must vote yes to hold a Constitutional Convention. 70 delegates to the Convention would be elected from across the state, two coming from each state Senate district

The time table for calling and assembling a Convention would be at least 2 years. In theory, voters could decide to have the convention and elect their delegates in the same election, saving both money and time. It would then simply become a matter of the General Assembly fixing a date for the Convention to begin.

This Convention would be faced with several critical tasks, ones that could be performed with respect for the framework of the current document.

The Convention would have to carefully consider what other budget restrictions make sense for a modern state, other than the tried and true requirement of a balanced state budget.

It is possible that there would be some constraints, or even none. A Convention would allow for state-wide dialogue about this paramount issue.

Our Constitution should continue to protect fundamental human and civil rights, and the basic tenets of criminal, natural resources, water, local government and agriculture law. A Convention would permit constructive debate about these areas, guaranteeing that the basic framework of our civil life reflects the realities of today’s Colorado.

Our 1876 Constitution has been amended over 110 times since the initiative and referendum process became law in 1910.

Today, the document is unwieldy and unfitting a 21st Century state. An extraordinary amount of political energy is necessary to make this Convention a reality.

The stakes, however, are so high that nothing less than full efforts on the part of our leaders are required. The legislature should act this session to begin the process to call a Convention and free Colorado to grow for the future.

Andrew Luxen is an attorney in Denver. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.